Beware of Bad Boy

by April Brookshire

CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “All the freaky people make the beauty of the world.”

  -Michael Franti

  CALEB

  Shit, my dad caught me making out with his stepdaughter. In my opinion, we were doing nothing wrong, but I understood he and Julie might not see things the same way. Hell, they definitely wouldn’t. From the look on my dad’s face, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, besides what a shock it was to find us like this.

  My dad’s face turned from shock to seriousness once he’d composed himself. “Caleb, in the study. Now.” Expecting immediate compliance, he turned around and marched into his study.

  Staring down at her face as she nervously gazed back at me, I had one thought in my head, fuck ‘em. Something new was happening here and if we couldn’t stop is ourselves there was nothing anyone else could do.

  I gave Gianna a reassuring smile then pulled away from her to follow my dad. Shutting the door with a click, I stood defiantly instead of taking a seat. Having no need to defend myself, I waited for him to break the silence.

  My dad began with, “Gianna is a good girl.”

  “I know.”

  Maybe that wasn’t the response he’d expected. He didn’t say anything for a full minute. “How serious are you about her?”

  How serious? She meant a heck of a lot more to me than all the girls in my past combined. “Very.” I could see Gianna and I being together for quite a while.

  He obviously didn’t expect that answer either. He’d practically cringed at my response. “You have to end it.”

  “No.”

  My dad sighed. “Caleb, if it was up to me, I’d leave the two of you alone. But Gianna isn’t my daughter. She’s Julie’s daughter and I know Julie wouldn’t like the two of you dating.”

  I scoffed at that. “Too late, we already are.”

  “What am I supposed to do about this? You’re my son and she’s my wife. I also care about Gianna and Chance and how they’re affected.”

  “We aren’t doing anything wrong.”

  “But if you hurt her. . . .” he trailed off.

  “I won’t.”

  “Does she plan on telling her mother?”

  “Not yet,” I told him. “We wanted to give ourselves time to adjust to the relationship ourselves.”

  My dad gripped the arms of his chair. His agitation made me feel bad. “Okay, I won’t say anything to Julie yet, but this can’t stay a secret forever. Her mom has a right to know. I have a feeling things may get bad when she does find out. We’ll just deal with it when the time comes.”

  “Thanks, dad.” My dad appeared surprised by my gratitude and a little pleased. We hadn’t been close since he and my mom divorced so maybe sharing this secret would be a good thing.

  I found Gianna in the living room and related the conversation I’d with my dad. She was relieved he’d stay quiet about it for now. They may be worried about Julie’s reaction, but I hardly knew the woman and she wasn’t my mother. For their sake, I’d let it be a secret for now, but not for long.

  Later that night, when Julie and my dad were downstairs watching a new Disney movie with Chance, Gianna and I were in her room. I sat at her desk as she stood behind me, looking over my shoulder. Following her instructions, I’d drawn a sketch of the tattoo she wanted. She seemed kind of shy about it and I almost had to force the details from her. It was cute. She had me draw a boom box with wings.

  “Where are you getting it?” I asked her.

  “I’m not sure yet,” she said, looking down at her clothed body. “Definitely somewhere my mom won’t see it.”

  “All this hiding things from your mom is really getting on my nerves,” I mumbled. “Maybe we should just lay it all out. She’s a big girl and she has to find out eventually.”

  “You can’t do that!”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. Was this about more than me being her stepbrother? Would her mom think I wasn’t good enough for her precious angel? We weren’t really related! Julie would have to be delusional to protest for that reason.

  “Fine,” I said. “What about school? Are we going to hide it there also?”

  “I’ll let you decide. I don’t care either way,” she conceded.

  “Well, that makes me feel good, you not caring either way.” I turned back to the sketch, touching it up.

  She wrapped her arms around my neck from behind and kissed me on the cheek. “I didn’t mean it like that. I don’t care because there’s no one there that’s important enough to me.”

  “What about the misfits?” I asked, mostly forgiving her.

  “The what?”

  “Our new friends.”

  “Oh yeah, we’ll tell them, of course, but I could care less what anyone else thinks.” When she nibbled on my ear she was completely forgiven.

  “Now, about that cuddling we discussed earlier,” I reminded her, making her giggle in my ear.